


Hide and Seek

by EveryFandomHybrid



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Jeremiah's church, Kissing, M/M, jeremiah has a great fashion sense and i love him for it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26504203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryFandomHybrid/pseuds/EveryFandomHybrid
Summary: Bruce goes looking for Jeremiah and finds more than he bargained for. A new game is started.
Relationships: Jeremiah Valeska/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 23
Kudos: 76





	Hide and Seek

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I finally got around to watching 5.07 and I'm losing it over that whole episode. Also I wrote part of this during church school and I feel powerful-

Bruce has been searching for Jeremiah for weeks now, and he’s no closer to finding him than he was the first day he set out on his search. But recently he’s been hearing a few sparse whispers in the shadows, of some sort of cult or church. It’s not much, and it could be anything, but he figures it’s best that he checks it out just in case. And if it isn’t even related to Jeremiah, it could still turn out to be related to some other up and coming problem. Gotham already has enough of those as it is; it doesn’t need more. 

So Bruce sets out to find the cult. Unfortunately, it’s a lot harder than it seems to find something that’s barely a whisper on the streets. Maybe he could pose as someone looking to join. That, paired with his usual methods of finding information––the methods of his ears and his fists––maybe he’ll find it faster. 

After a little over a week of searching, he finally finds the location of the church. He scouts it out from a distance beforehand, and then he decides to go in the middle of the night, when it’s less likely that anyone will be there to catch him. He can only hope that there will be useful information to be found in or around the church. If not, then he wasted about two weeks searching for something that wasn’t even a worthwhile lead. Though, it’s better than spending over a month searching for someone who was practically a ghost on the streets of Gotham and finding nothing.

That night, Bruce makes some excuse to Alfred about going to see Selina. He’ll probably figure out that Bruce didn’t go to see Selina sometime in the morning, but Bruce is prepared for the lecture that awaits him. After all, a potential lead is far more important than a lecture and lack of sleep. 

Once Bruce is out of the apartment, he slips into the shadows and carefully moves toward the dark zone, which he reaches quickly. The night is quiet and if Bruce listens closely, he can hear the blood rushing to his ears. But he doesn’t listen to that. Instead, he listens for the telltale sound of footsteps that aren’t his own, or anything that could mean trouble and danger. There’s only the sound of faint violence and the wind, though.

On the way to the church, Bruce almost gets caught up in a gang fight, but he narrowly avoids it and continues on his way. He reaches the church in record time and pauses outside to look at something he hadn’t noticed from the distance he was at earlier. It’s Jeremiah’s face on a few candles, with a larger version of the picture propped up against the back of the shrine. He feels his heart speed up immediately at the thought that he might have just found something that’s actually useful to him. Something that’s actually a good lead, and not just some dead end or empty rumor.

He slips inside the church easily enough. It’s not locked––probably to encourage people to come in to worship even at night. The atmosphere of the church instantly sends a shiver down Bruce’s spine and dread pools in his stomach. It’s an eerie reflection of a real church, with the exception being the candles (again, with Jeremiah on them). When Bruce cautiously walks further into the room, between the pews, he sees a stained glass image at the top of the stairs. Jeremiah is depicted in it, and it just adds to the not-quite-right atmosphere of the church. 

Looking around and not seeing anything worthwhile, Bruce decides to go up the stairs. He pauses briefly in front of the stained glass to look at it. Then he shakes his head and continues up the rest of the stairs. What greets him at the top is much worse, though, and he has to pause at the edge of the railing to take it in.

There’s what looks like an empty swimming pool or something in the middle of the room. It’s dirty with grime and looks like it hasn’t been used in years. It probably hasn’t. There’s blood splattered and smeared all over the edges, like a macabre painting. A table rests innocently in the middle of all the chaos. On the opposite side of the room, there’s another stained glass window depicting Jeremiah. The whole scene sends a chill down Bruce’s spine.

Carefully, Bruce makes his way down the stairs and to the table in the middle. When he reaches it, he can see that there’s a thin red cloth covering it. He tries to ignore the darker flecks of blood on it as he pulls it off to see what’s underneath. It flutters to the floor limply and reveals eight guns, with eight bullets in the middle. A game of russian roulette, maybe? But why would that be in a church?

Bruce doesn’t get a chance to find out or investigate further because he hears footsteps and faint voices getting closer from the entrance on the opposite side of where he came in. He quickly picks up the sheet and throws it back over the table before sneaking out of the room and back into the main area with the pews. He hides behind a pillar, trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. Soon after, Jeremiah and Ecco come down the stairs.

Jeremiah is wearing a simple white dress shirt with an emerald green and black paisley patterned vest, dark pinstripe slacks, and dress shoes. Even though he looks pretty dressed up, Bruce can tell he’s not planning anything special tonight. His hair’s not even styled ors slicked back. This is actually a pretty casual look for him, Bruce notes.

Bruce watches as Jeremiah lightly touches Ecco on the arm to stop her from walking further and whispers something in her ear. She nods and walks past Bruce and out of the church. When Bruce turns back around to look for Jeremiah, he isn’t there anymore, but Bruce hadn’t heard him leave the room. 

Then there’s a warm breath of air on the back of Bruce’s neck and a hand is clamped over his mouth. Bruce tries to move but an arm wraps around his waist and he’s pulled against someone’s chest.

“Hello, Bruce,” Jeremiah whispers in his left ear. Bruce tries to suppress the shiver of what’s probably dread at being so close to Jeremiah.

“Jeremiah,” Bruce growls once Jeremiah removes his hand from over Bruce’s mouth.

“Oh, I love it when you say my name like that,” Jeremiah says with a sigh, an odd undertone to his voice. He ignores how Bruce struggles to break free. 

“Let me go,” Bruce demands and kicks Jeremiah in the leg. Jeremiah doesn’t even flinch, and his grip on Bruce becomes tighter, if anything. 

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Bruce,” Jeremiah says, bringing his free hand up to idly mess with Bruce’s hair. It’s almost like he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it, like it’s just an idle action.

Bruce shakes his head and Jeremiah pauses, his hand now only brushing lightly over Bruce’s hair. His hand slowly sinks down to rest at his side once more. 

“Why not?” Maybe if Bruce stalls enough, he can figure out some way to get away from Jeremiah. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to break free from his hold, but what if Ecco is waiting for him to run outside? Jeremiah had obviously known Bruce was here, and who knows what he’d whispered to Ecco. Maybe––

“I can hear you overthinking. Calm down, darling,” Jeremiah soothes, his voice soft and low, but doing nothing to ease Bruce’s worries. Once upon a time, months ago, it might have. “You found my church too soon, Bruce. You weren’t supposed to be here yet.”

“When was I supposed to be here?” Bruce can’t imagine that Jeremiah would ever want him to find his church at all unless he has an ulterior motive. 

“Not for another few weeks at least. You’ll see,” Jeremiah states, and that just makes Bruce more nervous. Jeremiah’s planning something, and it involves him. 

“Not if I stop you first,” Bruce argues and decides he might as well try to escape, even if Ecco is outside waiting for him. It doesn’t do him any good to be trapped, and he’d rather have a fighting chance. Plus, he doubts that Jeremiah’s going to reveal any more than he already had.

With that thought in mind, Bruce knocks his head back into Jeremiah’s face and he hears something crack and Jeremiah’s hold on him loosens slightly. Bruce breaks out of his grasp and turns around to knee him in the stomach, before pushing him backward. Jeremiah falls back and Bruce kneels over him, effectively pinning him to the floor. Distantly, he thinks of the mirror maze and how he always seems to end up practically straddling the Valeskas when he fights them. 

Jeremiah doesn’t make any move to fight back against Bruce. Instead, Jeremiah is just smiling up at Bruce and looking at him like he’s the center of his universe. Again, it reminds him of when Jerome had just looked up at Bruce and encouraged him to drive the glass shard through his heart. The Valeska twins have always been more similar than Bruce ever liked to admit. 

“Tell me what you’re planning, Jeremiah,” Bruce demands, glaring down at Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah lets out a startled laugh. It’s a high, grating sound that’s unhinged and makes something cold curl in Bruce’s stomach. “Why would I tell you that?”

Bruce grabs the front of Jeremiah’s suit and bunches the fabric in his hands as he pulls him closer, only to slam him back into the floor. “Tell me.”

Jeremiah just laughs. “You’ll find out when it’s ready. You’ll see.”

Bruce growls and Jeremiah makes a placating noise. 

“I don’t want to spoil your surprise, darling,” Jeremiah says, and Bruce can tell that he’s being completely honest. 

“I don’t want your surprise,” Bruce informs him, but Jeremiah shakes his head.

“You will. You’ll like it.”

“I doubt that.”

“Well, only time will tell,” Jeremiah mutters with a fond sigh. “Well, I must be going now. I’ll see you around.”

Jeremiah quickly pulls Bruce down into a kiss, and when Bruce’s hold on him loosens in surprise, Jeremiah uses that to his advantage and rolls them over to pin Bruce to the ground. When Jeremiah pulls away, there’s a small smile on his face and a look in his eyes that takes Bruce’s breath away and feels like a punch to the gut at the same time. It’s a look of pure wonder, adoration, and dare Bruce say, love. It reminds Bruce of how Jeremiah used to be before he was sprayed with the gas, before he went mad. It has Bruce forgetting for just one second that any chance of happiness he could have had with Jeremiah is now gone. It has him pulling Jeremiah into another kiss.

Jeremiah sighs happily against Bruce’s lips and pulls back. He smiles at Bruce and leans down to give him a chaste kiss on the forehead, before pulling away and getting off of Bruce. 

“Come catch me, my prince,” Jeremiah whispers, just loud enough for Bruce to hear over the rush of blood in his ears. 

Bruce stays lying on the floor even as he hears the sound of Jeremiah’s footsteps retreating. He stays there until his brain actually processes what just happened, at which point he unsteadily rises to his feet like a newborn deer. A part of him hates himself for what he just allowed to happen, but the other part of him––the part that’s still hopeful, that still has feelings for Jeremiah––is practically singing with joy. 

“Ready or not, here I come,” Bruce mutters under his breath with a bittersweet smile, finding it oddly fitting for the situation. Jeremiah wants Bruce to chase after him, to find him, and that’s exactly what Bruce is going to do.

**Author's Note:**

> So I have a whole bunch of ideas for things to write, but some of them would work well with both jeremiah and jerome so should I like write different versions of the same idea basically, like is that something people wouldn't mind reading or-


End file.
